Some people have religious obligations and traditions that involve rare animals. A group of Tibetan monks illegally obtain or hunt rare creatures due to religious obligations (McLachlan). As one can see, causes of poaching are done for many reasons, such as food, religion, money, and even lack of enforcement.

It has been done for a number of reasons, including claiming the land for human use, but recently, the illegal act is being done for other ridiculous motives, especially the desire for rare animal products such as ivory, fur, organs, skin, bones, or teeth.

“Animal poaching” is when an animal is killed illegally. It usually occurs when an animal possesses something that is considered valuable (i.e. the animal’s fur or ivory). Many countries believe that the rhino horn is an important ingredient for many medicines.

The vast majority of poaching is caused by organized crime syndicates that use high-powered technology and weaponry to track and kill many animals at once without being detected.

Poaching can have negative effects on the environment because when one species is declining at a rate too fast to replenish, other species can increase or decrease as well. Plant life can overgrow or cannot regrow due to the other species that was normally hunted by a poached animal.

The effects of poaching on elephants go far beyond individual deaths and can span decades after the actual killings occur. They include disruption of social organization, reduction of reproductive output, and increases in stress hormone levels.

The extinction of a species can have a negative economic effect on a local community’s tourism industry. A community that relies on its wildlife to attract tourists is at great risk for economic hardship if the prevalence of poaching is high. Furthermore, a tourist boycott due to local poaching is a real threat.

There are more than 1,000 captive animal hunting operations in the United States. Thousands of individuals are arrested for poaching in the United States each year. However, experts believe that only between one and five percent of poachers are caught.

The bottom third of each elephant tusk is embedded within the skull of the animal. This part is actually a pulpy cavity that contains nerves, tissue and blood vessels. However, it too is ivory. The only way a tusk can be removed without killing the animal is if the animal sheds the tooth on its own.

Ivory is the hard, white material from the tusks and teeth of elephants, hippopotami, walruses, warthogs, sperm whales and narwhals, as well as now extinct mammoths and mastodons. Both male and female African elephants have tusks, while, comparatively, only some male Asian elephants have tusks.

That means that poaching — one of the biggest threats to elephants — is widespread and may be a bigger problem than we think. Poachers kill elephants for their valuable tusks — a single pound of ivory can sell for $1,500, and tusks can weigh 250 pounds.

Elephants can use them to protect their trunks, dig for water, lift objects, strip bark from trees, gather food and defend themselves, according to “Poached: Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking” (Da Capo Press, 2018), by science journalist Rachel Nuwer. But once removed, these tusks don’t grow back.

Elephants don’t drink with their trunks, but use them as “tools” to drink with. This is accomplished by filling the trunk with water and then using it as a hose to pour it into the elephant’s mouth. Elephants can swim – they use their trunk to breathe like a snorkel in deep water.

He’ll Beat You With His Trunk An elephant’s trunk might seem like a big, soft, sensitive area, but it’s a lot more than that. It’s also an incredibly strong muscle. Separate from the rest of the body the nose alone weighs 400 pounds, and when that hits you, you know it.

Dung Beetle

hippopotamus